Heartbeat Slowing Down
by FosterStinson
Summary: As Barry Allen faces off against some of his toughest villains yet, nothing is going to get in the way of his growing love for one Patty Spivot. But he soon realizes that loving her will only put her in danger, he knows she is willing to take that risk... but is he?
1. Breathtaking

Barry sat at the table checking his watch every few milliseconds, impatiently tapping his finger on the table so fast it could have cracked. He'd never been this nervous before in his life. Not even when facing off against the Reverse-Flash. He had a lot on his plate at the moment, but there was nowhere else he'd rather be, nothing else he'd rather be doing.

Then in an instant, everything stopped. Not the way it usually does when he speeds up, but because he sees her. The first thing he sees is her beautifully flowing blonde hair, then he sees the skin tight red dress tightly hugging her body, showing off a fair amount of cleavage which Barry did his best not to stare at. She wore red gloves as well, making her look very high class, and her heels were so long he was worried she might be taller than him. But none of those minor details could distract from the true beauty resonating from her face.

He slowly stood up as their eyes met, and her face lit up as she smiled. She began to walk over to him, briefly tripping on her heel, but Barry rushed forward to catch her as they both began chuckling.

"I'm sorry, I don't usually dress up like this." she said shyly.

"No, don't be. You look beautiful, Patty." He said stuttering, almost tripping over his words.

She blushed. "No, come on, no I don't. I probably look like a hooker or something. I'm so sorry I just said that, that is not proper for a first date."

She looked legitimately worried she'd just ruined everything, but he put on hand on her shoulder, and the other on her elbow to stabilize her standing. "Hey, it's okay. Nothing could possibly ruin this. Let's sit down."

"Okay." She said, a little more relieved.

They both sat down across from each other and each let out a deep breath before laughing.

"I'm really excited to be here with you, Patty."

She smiled sheepishly, and Barry couldn't help but smile back. "I'm really happy you asked me. After all the time it took to exchange numbers, I'm glad we finally got here."

"Yeah, well, sometimes we have to wait for the best things. And it's worth it."

"You can say that again."

They ordered and as soon as the waiter walked away they both just stared at each other, not awkwardly, just peacefully. It wasn't hard for them to think of things to say, they were just happy looking at each other.

However, just as soon as they were both about to open their mouths, both of their phones rang.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Said Patty.

"I know, me too, but it's probably important."

"Yeah, we should take this."

"Yeah."

Yet neither of them answered their ringing phones because they were still just staring at each other. A few seconds passed before both of them realized what they were supposed to do and they answered.

"Joe, hi. What's going on?"

"Cisco, what's up?"

"I need you to get to Club Morrison down on 95th and Cavill. It's important, I'll explain as soon as you get here."

"We got a metahuman attacking the fire department… with fire powers. I'd hurry up."

Both of them hung up and said simultaneously "I have to go, it's urgent." They then both smiled, but then swallowed nervously and got serious faces.

"We will definitely do this again. For real." Promised Barry.

"Can't wait." Said Patty, smiling as both of them rushed out of the restaurant to go to their respective emergencies.

 **A/N: Alright, to clear some things up this chapter takes place after episode 4 of season 2, I'll do my best to follow with what's going on in the show in present time, but it's likely that the story will deviate and go its own way based on what I have planned. Either way, I hope you enjoy it. Also I do not own the characters or anything relating to** _ **The Flash**_ **, it would be a perfect world if I did, but alas…!**


	2. The Emergencies

Barry skidded to a halt as soon as he reached the fire department. Paramedics were already on the scene, a few firefighters were already outside being treated, but the inside of the building was still burning, and he could hear people screaming. He ran inside to find a red headed woman wearing a red and black leather suit throwing fire from her hands.

"Hey!" Barry shouted. She turned and faced him, with fire burning in her eyes.

"You another one of Zoom's?"

"Who the hell is Zoom?" she asked angrily before throwing a fireball at him, which he dodged.

" _Barry, Earth-2 Wells is saying he has no clue who this chick is. I don't know why we should believe him, but-"_

"Alright, I got it. Can you turn on the sprinklers?"

" _No, she burned them."_

" _Barry."_ Spoke the last voice he wanted to hear. _"You need to run a vortex around her to suck out all the oxygen, thus taking away her ability to create the fire."_

He sighed. "Okay." He did as he was told and created the vortex, knocking her unconscious. He then put out the rest of the fires and sped her to S.T.A.R. Labs where she was quickly added to the pipeline.

"Blood sample says her name is Claire Selton. The night the Particle Accelerator exploded her apartment caught fire, and no one responded to her 911 call until she was already presumed deceased." Explained Caitlin.

"Well, at least Volcana went down easy." Said Cisco, testing a name. Wells laughed from the corner.

"Is there something funny?" asked Cisco venomously.

"Volcana. I like it. We don't have one like her on my world."

"Well I'm glad you're amused." He said, turning his attention back to Caitlin and Barry.

"She's the first metahuman I've fought in months who wasn't sent here by Zoom, who we are no closer to catching, by the way." Said Barry.

"Zoom isn't the kind of metahuman you catch. He's the kind you kill." Said Wells, frighteningly serious.

"We don't kill metahumans." Said Barry.

"Is that what you said to Eddie Slick?" he retorted.

He'd backed Barry into a corner. "That was different. He was going to kill Patty."

"Zoom's going to kill millions. He _has_ killed millions." He said, walking closer to Barry. "This isn't a game, you can't keep locking these metahumans up, expecting them never to be a problem again. You think you could have defeated King Shark on your own, let alone fit him in the pipeline? No, he's not a problem right now because _I_ killed him and saved your life."

"Harrison, that's enough." Said Jay, who had just arrived in the cortex.

He put his hands in the air and stepped away from Barry. "You're the boss, Flash."

Jay briefly glared at him before entering. "I know he's difficult to work with, but he's helped me countless times back on my world. Even if he hasn't always been the most pleasant partner."

" _He_ is also standing right here. _He_ also has feelings."

Cisco scoffed as Barry just buried his head in his hands, wishing to still be at dinner with Patty.

Patty wasn't having fun with her endeavors either. She had just arrived at Club Morrison and she entered Joe's car through the passenger door.

"Was I interrupting anything?" asked Joe, sarcastically.

She swallowed. "No."

"Good, because this is more important."

"What is it?" she asked.

He looked her dead in the eye and said "Mardon."

"Then why are we still in here? Let's go!"

"Are you out of your mind? Mardon can control the weather, if we go in there now, he will not only probably start a hurricane inside that club, but he will kill both of us. I know you want justice for your father, but running in half-cocked is not going to get the job done." She was silent. "Go ahead. Tell me I'm right."

She sighed. "You're right. So what do we do?"

"We wait for him to come out, we tail him. He's been free for months now, it's a wonder he hasn't acted out, so he has to be planning something. Something big. Once we know his routine, we call in help, and we take him down."

She nodded. "Okay. How long do we have to wait here?"

"He went in about twenty minutes ago. Could be another few seconds, could be a couple hours. No way to know for sure."

She sighed once more and began tapping her finger impatiently.

 _Oh, great. Another finger tapper. Don't I get enough of that with Barry?_ Thought Joe.

Luckily for him, Mark Mardon walked out of the bar within the next few minutes. Patty's heart stopped when she saw him. Her blood boiled, and her fist tightened. Joe noticed this.

"Calm down, Spivot. We're gonna get this guy. Sometimes you have to wait for the best things, and it's worth it." He said.

"That's exactly what Barry said at dinner."

"You were at dinner with Barry?"

"What?"

"What?"

"He's getting away!" she shouted, pointing at him as he got on his motorcycle, negating the need for a helmet. He cracked his neck before starting up and driving away. Joe waited about a minute before starting the car and following after him. They followed him all the way to the Broome Hotel in the slums of Central City. They were both surprised he hadn't noticed them. Or even if he had, he hadn't done anything about it.

"Alright, we know where he sleeps at night. It's a good start, but we can't stay here- Spivot!" he was cut short by Patty practically jumping out of the car and running into the Hotel.

"Shit." Muttered Joe before getting out and following after her. She had followed Mardon all the way to the fourth floor, even seeing him enter room D110, but Joe grabbed her before she could bust in and he dragged her away from the door, covering her mouth. He could feel her tears colliding with his hand.

"Spivot! You need to calm down! Patty, you are going to get yourself killed if you go in there! Think of Barry! Think of your dad! What would he think of you rushing in there and getting hit by lightning?" he urged as quietly as possible, feeling her heavy breathing slow down. He released his hand off her mouth as she began crying.

"My dad was all I had. He was all I had and Mardon took him from me."

Joe cradled her as they both breathed heavily until she was ready to leave.

Barry and Patty didn't see each other for two days until Monday when they were both at work. Barry was up in his lab just looking at one of the shark teeth Patty had given him. He heard his door opening, expecting it to be Patty, but then his heart sank.

"What the hell are you doing here?! All the cops down there think you're a murderer, not to mention _dead_! How did you even get up here without anyone noticing?" complained Barry.

"That's beside the point. I was going crazy staying at S.T.A.R. Labs, and seeing as how Cisco and Caitlin are nowhere near as trusting of me as you seem to be, I figured this was the best place to come." He explained simply.

"Do you have a Cisco and Caitlin on your world?"

"Do you really care about that?"

"Why else would I ask?"

He chuckled. "Fair enough. I don't know about Cisco. But Caitlin, yeah we have her. I don't know way Jay hasn't told you yet, but Caitlin's one of his worst enemies. I guess he's just a lot more trusting than you guys."

Barry found it hard to believe, but he chose not to question Wells.

"It's best for you not to go poking around in these things Barry. As soon as Zoom is dead, we-"

"Barry?" spoke Patty from the hall.

In the next second Barry had shoved Wells into his locker and went back to his lab, pretending to be working.

"Hey, Patty!"

"Hi, I'm really sorry I had to leave dinner early, but there was an emergency, it couldn't be helped."

"Yeah, no, me too, there was something going on at S.T.A.R. Labs, that I uh…"

"What do you do up at S.T.A.R. Labs?" she asked curiously.

…

"Um. Well some of the people who work there still we uh, we play racquetball."

"Your emergency was racquetball?"

"What? No! My buddy Cisco was messing around with an experiment and it… blew up. So I was just making sure he was okay."

"Oh! That's awful, I hope he's okay."

"Yeah, yeah, Cisco's fine. But um, do you wanna try dinner again this weekend?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure, we can definitely work something out. I'll have my people get in touch with your people." She said, laughing as she walked out.

"My people will be waiting!" he said, smiling. There was just something about that girl that made him feel different, in a good way. It was a different feeling than the one Iris used to give him, it was… better.

Just then, his locker opened and Wells stepped out laughing. "That was really smooth. I enjoy racquetball, why haven't you and Cisco ever invited me?"

"Oh, shut up."


	3. Hurricane Mark

Mark Mardon sat on the edge of his bed. He looked at the woman laying asleep on the bed and smiled. He never thought he'd have a reason to get out of the family business. But he didn't have a family anymore. He just had Julie. She had become everything to him. He hadn't even used his powers in weeks. She just made him happy, something he hadn't really felt in a long time. He was about to reach over and stroke her face, but in the next second he was thrown into the wall and was looking at Julie's body on the floor with her throat ripped out.

Mardon screamed. Then Zoom came into focus. "Hello, Mark."

"Who the hell are you?" he asked angrily, mini storm clouds forming around his hands.

"The real question here is, who are _you_? On my world, Mark Mardon died serving in the United States Marines in the war against Atlantis. He wasn't special. He served no purpose. But you, you are the _Weather Wizard_. You control the very atmosphere, and you waste your time in crappy hotels with sleazy women when you could be spending your time ruling the world."

Mardon took a deep breath. "You say ruling the world? I could dig that."

"Good. There's just one thing you have to do for me."

He chuckled. "And what would that be?"

"Kill the Flash."

"Yeah, I could do that."

Meanwhile, at S.T.A.R. Labs Cisco was sitting in his chair, looking at the video feeds of Henry Hewitt, Claire Selton, and the Earth 2 Linda Park, incredibly bored. Just then, Barry and Wells walked in and Cisco let out a deep sigh.

"Still mad at me for outing you as a metahuman?" joked Wells. Cisco got out of his chair, but was taken aback by one of the video feeds. In less than a second, Dr. Light was gone.

"Barry, Light's gone!" he shouted, and within the next second Barry was gone as well. He ran into the pipeline fast enough to see a blue streak turning the corner, so Barry raced after him. He chased it all the way out of S.T.A.R. Labs, but this streak was much faster than the Reverse-Flash had ever been. He knew it had to be Zoom. It seemed as though Zoom had no clear destination, as he was just leading Barry through random routes in Central City. However, this changed when Zoom led Barry into a construction site and seemingly disappeared, along with Dr. Light. Barry skidded to a halt and looked around, but the second he turned all the way around he was hit with a gust of wind, knocking him all the way back into a metal rod. He got up as his vision returned to normal and he was able to make out a clear figure.

"Mardon." He said, the disdain in his voice very clear.

"You know I really thought that I was done with this life. But then the blue guy reminded me of what I am."

"A criminal?"

"A god."

Mardon shot a lightning bolt at Barry, which he dodged and ran towards Mardon, punching him in the face as hard as he could. This sent Mardon careening backwards into a porta potty. He got up and screamed, forming a storm cloud above them. It wasn't long before there was news trucks crowding the scene, Barry even noticed Iris, thankful she was at a close distance. However, Mardon also noticed them. He forced all of them back with a gust of wind, turning his attention back to Flash. The storm clouds were now pouring down rain, lightning flashing every now and then. The wind was blowing incredibly hard, making it difficult for Barry to run. Soon the police showed up as well, but Mardon blocked them off with a wall of wind around the construction site. Soon the entire thing was destroyed, and the debris was just flying around in the storm. Eventually, Barry jumped up onto one of the rods and began jumping from one chunk of debris to the next. He eventually grabbed one of the metal rods and with all of his strength forced it downward, right at Mardon. The rod hit him directly in the face, knocking him a solid twenty feet backwards. All at once, the storm died down and the squadrons of police officers marched in.

"Stay back!" shouted Flash as he cautiously stepped towards Mardon. He glanced backwards and saw Patty, pain written all over her face. Barry grabbed one of their hand cuffs in the blink of an eye and quickly placed them on Mardon, forcing him up. Just before he raced off, several detectives ran up to him, insisting they take Mardon. Just at that point in time, Barry realized that this was the first time he had defeated a villain in front of a crowd, he couldn't just speed him to the pipeline with no questions asked. He glanced at Joe, who nodded grimly as Barry handed Mardon to one of the detectives.

Quickly, Barry grabbed Joe and sped him into an alley.

"What are we gonna do? They can't hold Mardon, but they won't let me take him?"

"Calm down, Bear. I'll handle it, just take me back and follow my lead."

Barry swallowed nervously and raced Joe back, watching him take custody of Mardon, placing him in the back of a police car. Joe looked at Barry, and motioned his head towards the tires of the police car, and Barry understood what he was trying to say. After the car sped away with Mardon, Flash raced after them and popped one of the tires, causing the car to go off course. However, before it crashed into anything, he got the two officers out safely. The second it collided with a building, Barry grabbed Mardon and took him back to the pipeline.

He walked into the cortex, taking his mask off and breathing heavily, as he was very exhausted. He looked up and found the eyes of Cisco, Caitlin, Jay, and Wells looking at him expectantly.

"Zoom was working with Mardon. I got him into the pipeline, but he got away with Light."

"Dammit!" shouted Wells, knocking a chair over.

"Would you calm down?" asked Jay, annoyed. Wells glared at him.

"It's okay, Barry. We'll get him." Reassured Caitlin. Barry nodded silently, disappointed in himself that he couldn't catch Zoom.

Later, he found himself in his lab when Patty walked in.

"Hey! Is something wrong?" asked Barry, seeing the sadness on his face.

"The Flash caught Mark Mardon today."

"And that's a bad thing?" he asked skeptically.

"No, it's not, it's good but… Barry I need to confess something to you."

"Of course, you can tell me anything."

"Mark Mardon killed my father."

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I had no idea!"

"No, it's okay. I joined Joe's task force because I wanted to catch him, I wanted to be the one to bring him to justice. For my father."

Barry said nothing, only embracing Patty in a hug as she squeezed him tightly.

Elsewhere, Zoom arrived at his temporary base on Earth 1, in an abandoned botany lab at Stagg Industries. He threw Light to the ground and said "You failed me. Just like all the others. Yet you managed to stay alive, although not as long as I imagine you'd hoped."

"Zoom, please, we can still win this. I can still help you! Please!" she begged.

"I don't think so."

He said as he moved to the side and Light was blindsided by a stream of ice covering her, quickly killing her.

"Caitlin Snow, welcome to Earth 1."

 **A/N: Alright, so after watching "The Darkness and the Light", I decided to make most of it canon. However, there are some tweaks. Barry and Patty had their date as they did in this story, not the one from the show, so Barry was not blind and they have not kissed yet. However, wherever the show decides to go from here, I will be going in a different direction. Hope you all like it!**


End file.
